Subzero Weather

[Pennsylvania RAV]

Had temps around 3 deg. F last night...

When turning on car, msg. says battery warming, power may be limited......
Left car on, plugged in, heater on at 75, waited and came back about 30
minutes later.....still says battery warming, power may be limited.....


Should I A) Just leave it plugged in and car turned off and ride it out
for 2 days until back into 20 to 30 degrees

B) Take for short drive and see if battery heats up faster

C) Leave car turned "ON" all night when it goes to -5 Deg. F Monday night?

Batteries won't actually freeze if car is plugged in, even if off correct?
Have driven car in 15 deg F weather with no difficulties (obvious decrease
in range, but nothing else)

Thanks for any advice.

 

[miimura]

I would do pre-climate while plugged in before you want to drive it. Then just drive even though it says power may be limited. I think you'll find that it's not that limited. This seems to be just a little more extreme version of "Regeneration May Be Limited" that you see in B mode in freezing weather. The car should warm the battery after about 15 minutes of driving.

 

[Pennsylvania RAV]

After this post, tried to go out and start again after leaving heaters on inside and car ON for 30 minutes.
Car shut down, nothing would come up. Tried multiple times....then car came up with "Battery
Temp. Low, Battery Warming" Alternating with Screen of Death EV System Failure: have vehicle
serviced by dealership....... Towed it to local Pennsylvania Toyota Dealership....We'll see what
happens.

Should I tell them to update firmware? Replace ECU? All of the above? They have no idea really about
this car.

 

[miimura]

So sorry to hear that. From your first post, I thought the car came READY, but had a warning on the right side of the instrument cluster. The car clearly has a much more serious problem now. Sorry to say, but I think you will find out first hand what Toyota's actual position on out-of-state warranty repair is.

Edit: It sounds like your symptoms are similar to the one discussed in this thread. If so, it's serious.

 

[reeler]

Towed it to local Pennsylvania Toyota Dealership....We'll see what
happens.

I reread the warranty booklet and there is nothing that says you must have warranty repair done in-state. In fact, we have free towing to the dealership. If they say they will not do the repair, have the car towed to a dealer that will, for free.

I don't think warranty repair has ever been denied for those out of state. Firmware upgrades, free maintenance, etc. are a different story. I find it hard to believe that Toyota would not help you out. Let us know what happens.

 

[quartzav]

They denied mine drive motor whine in western PA.

 

[reeler]

They denied mine drive motor whine in western PA.

If your drive motor stops working, I thinking that would be a different issue. Folks in CA have had difficulty with the motor noise issue.

 

[quartzav]

@ Reeler
Touche This makes me worried if mine is on its way to a failure...

@ Pennsylvania RAV
Sorry to hear what happened. Let us know if Toyota will do what they are supposed to.

 

[eplantz]

I know this does not apply, or even interest, RAV4 EV owners in California but these are my observations from the past half week.

CHICAGO

Monday AM was -16F outside. pretty cold in the garage (maybe 30). I did pre-climate 3 times before leaving. Set for EXTENDED charge my GoM range was 70 (after battery top-up).

The drive downtown was normal (33 miles) and comfortable. temp was set to 70 and ECO HI.

I parked in a public garage with a Chargepoint charger. This was a 9-story building open to the elements. It was -12F all day. In the summer, my charge here takes 1.5 hours. It was still going at 4 hours but almost done. My GoM said my range was 55.

The drive home (33 miles) was uneventful and my GoM read 19 at home. It took a LONG time to charge at home (3.6KW 240V charger).

For reference, in the summer, my normal GoM reading would be 135 and after the drive (above), i would have 100-102 available.

Other than the huge drop in range, the car behaved quite well. The seat heater (1) was used only a little.

oddities: I swear there were two occasions where CLIMATE was set to normal by itself. There was a blinking green ECO light right under the trip ODO reset button. Don't know what that is.


TUESDAY AM:

-12F and GoM reads 55 after a full, extended, charge. I'm seeing efficiency of 1.2 mi/KW (usually was 3.3 in summer)

Range is still OK for me but makes me concerned if i got stuck in a snow storm on the road.

Gene

 

[Kohler Controller]

thanks for that report eplantz. It dipped down to the 20s here in Austin. I've been using the 5 timers in RAVCHARGE to pre-condition the car one time every hour during the night (i.e. 15 min every hour starting at 1am, 2am, 3am, etc.). I also have use the pre-condition timers in the car to add another 2 sessions. In theory this should keep the batteries warmer than ambient (assuming the thermal battery management system is activated during pre-climate activation), plus my interior is warm when I get in. I also did the same thing while at work. Both places the car was plugged into wall power the entire time. Yet another great feature from RAVCharge!

I would love even more timers from RAVCharge, or better yet the ability to tell it to start and stop pre-climate without the 15 min timer limitations. For example, tell RAVCharge I'd like Pre-Climate on from 1am to 7am. Then it would ping pre-climate through Entunes every 15 minutes between those hours to keep it going continuously.

 

[Spiffster]

Its been pretty damn cold here in Denver lately. My wife occasionally heats her RAV4 up before she leaves for work. I noticed that my Volt usually reports ~25-30ish degrees before I leave on the coldest mornings, so I guess our garage keeps things relatively warm.

The RAV4 shows mid-50s range on Eco-High climate. Everything seems normal to me and we have never had an issue. We only charge at home as I dont trust public chargers. Anyway, I think she said that she gets the regen reduced message occasionally. But at 8500 miles I have yet to see any need to baby this thing... I guess that's just me. I figure we will have some capacity loss over the years but even at 50% of original capacity, we would be fine . Were keeping this car for the long haul, so resale is not a concern.

Sorry to hear about your bad luck PA Rav...

 

[gschettl]

I appreciate the cold weather report too. I own a LEAF but would love to recommend the RAV4 to people if it had better winter range. Sounds like the RAV4 is ultra sensitive to cold with a 64% range drop. My LEAF range deteriorates 32% in winter, (4.1 >> 2.8 miles/kWh summer vs. winter). It's a struggle to get 50 miles out of the LEAF at -10°F & only if very cautious with the heater & average speed of only 37 mph. Prior to these trips the LEAF is typically in a 15°F garage over night. What range could I expect from a RAV4 EV at -10°F and a ~37mph avg speed?

 

[miimura]

At those temps, the range would depend on whether the car was cold soaked overnight or if it was pre-conditioned prior to departure. Being in CA, I don't have the data one way or another. I've only seen it cold enough a couple times to get the "Regen is limited" message due to a cold battery - and that was only down to about 34F for a couple hours.